


Charlie Comes Out

by maxsyn



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Canon Non-Binary Character, Coming Out, Cute, Fluff, Gen, Non-binary Charlie Kelly, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:34:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22959508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxsyn/pseuds/maxsyn
Summary: they are a litol enby they cannot chanmmge this
Relationships: Charlie Kelly/Dennis Reynolds, Charlie Kelly/Mac McDonald, Mac McDonald/Dennis Reynolds
Comments: 4
Kudos: 109





	Charlie Comes Out

It's was after the Jimmy Buffett concert. Charlie came home to the same moss-green, dumpy apartment, but he felt different. Something about the "bathroom issue" struck a dissonant chord within him. He followed Frank into the room and shut the door behind them both.

Charlie began to get dressed for bed. He picked the wrinkled, black horse tee off the futon, slipping it on after removing the red, Hawaiian, button-up. "Hey Frank?" He asked, lying in the disgusting, light-brown bed.

"Yeah, Charlie?" Frank responded, getting in the bed, as well.

"Have you ever - like - not known whether you're a man or not...?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Charlie shifted uncomfortably. "Like... the bathroom thing earlier really reminded me of some stuff I've been wanting to talk about."

"Is this about you using the bathroom wearing a dress? Charlie, you're still a man even if you-"

"Nah, nah- man, that's not what I'm talking about, I..." Charlie sat up. I'm not going to be taken seriously, he thought. "I'm going to the crevice," Charlie groaned, exasperated.

"Charlie, don't go into the crevice," sighed Frank.

"No, I'm going to the crevice." Charlie crawled into the section between the pillows and bedding. He lied there, blocking out the noise of screeching cats and loud cars that sped by.

_"And what am I?"_

_"You're white."_

_"And I'm a...?"_

_"A man."_

Something about those words pierced his eardrums.

_A man. A man. A man._

_A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man. A man._

Charlie thrashed for a moment, only falling asleep after succumbing to the exhaustion of the concert and overthinking. 

The next day was filled with the same confusion. Charlie left to the bar that morning, needing desperately to talk to Mac.

"Mac!" Charlie shouted into the near-empty bar. "Mac, I need to talk to you, dude." He tapped on Mac's arm, signaling some sort of urgency. Dennis, who was sitting on the stool next to him, asked "whoa, whoa, whoa- hey, what's going on?" not wanting to be left out.

"I need to talk to Mac."

Mac, confused, then stood up to follow Charlie into the office. "Oh - um, alright, I guess." He muttered.

Charlie shut the door behind them. "So, Mac, um..." Charlie's voice was suddenly very quiet. Perhaps it was from not wanting to be heard by Dennis or whoever else was on the other side of the door, or just from the embarrassment of uncertainty. "Mac, when you look at me, do you see - like - a guy?"

"...Yeah?"

"See, that's the thing I was worried about." Charlie began pacing the small room. He felt heavy with thoughts, and the stacks of files and papers crowding the room only made him feel more closed-in. His gaze remained at the floor as he paced. "Mac, I don't feel like a guy."

"What, like... like you're a girl?"

"No! That's the thing!" Charlie paused his repetitive movement to look up at Mac. "I don't really think I'm either one."

Mac stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say. Normally, he would've chalked it up to be pure Charlie nonsense, but he had always noticed little discrepancies. Asking where transgender people fit into the bathroom thing - which could have just very well been them being inclusive, but they don't know anyone transgender, no one in the bar did (besides Carmen, but they didn't talk about her much, anymore) -, the dress, the way that Charlie had to ask Dennis whether or not they were a man. A lot within their demeanor should have clicked in his mind, Mac just never put the pieces together.

Charlie looked back at the floor for a minute. "I think it's called like...nine berries, or something..."

"...You mean non-binary?" Mac asked, trying to help out his illiterate friend.

"Y-Yeah, I read about it."

"Charlie, you can't read," Mac stated.

Charlie shifted where they stood. "No, I can read... well-" they looked up at Mac, the twinge of nervousness had once more waved over their voice. "-I heard some people talking about it and... I think that's what I am."

Mac leaned against the desk, staring at the floor, unsure of what to say, until he asked, "So... do you not want to be called male pronouns anymore?"

Charlie looked into the distance for a moment. "Well... what's a pronoun, exactly, because-"

A sigh was emitted from Mac, cutting Charlie off to shortly explain what a pronoun is, to which Charlie responded "oh, no, I like 'they', it makes me sound like I'm like multiple people."

Mac, already used to the gibberish that was Charlie's thoughts and the way they expressed them. "Okay but... you're still gonna have to tell the rest of the Gang."

Charlie nodded, "Right, right." They crossed their arms, looking at the floor. "I didn't think I would have to, like... come out. I thought they would all just one day not think of me as - like - a man, y'know? Like how you didn't have to come out but we all knew you were gay?"

"Well, you didn't know because I was great at hiding it, but yes," Mac stated, standing up from against the desk to move around once more.

"But, I guess I'm gonna have to tell them," Charlie sighed, turning around and putting a hand on the doorknob.

Before they could begin to turn the handle, Mac interrupted "You don't have to do it right away, if you don't want to."

Charlie paused for a moment. Mac's interruption lead to them finally beginning to think. "What if they don't believe me?" they asked, voice quiet and worrisome. "Or they don't accept me?"

"Well, I don't know about that. They're your friends, and I'm sure they'll love you no matter what." Mac put a hand on their shoulder, trying to comfort them. Realising that pausing Charlie was a mistake - especially given their history of overthinking and complicating themself - Mac pulled his hand back. "Just try not to overthink it, okay? If you wanna just go out there and tell them, then you should do that! You guys were all so accepting of me, I'm sure they won't mind if you came out."

Charlie shook off the racing thoughts and opened the door, their heart pounding. 

They opened the door to see Dennis sitting where they last saw him. However, Frank and Dee were now there, in silence, presumably waiting for whatever Charlie and Mac were doing to be over.

Charlie breathed. They walked behind the bar counter and slammed their hands against the top to get all their attention. "I'm non-binary!" they shouted, their voice refused to convey a specific emotion, but instead sounding like a mix of excitement and desperation.

_Please, please, please, please, please,_ they thought, staring at the three of them, awaiting some sort of reply.

Dennis leaned back in his seat slightly, taking in what Charlie had just laid -or, considering their tone, _thrown_ \- in front of them all. "Oh," Dee muttered.

Dennis nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"...That's it?" Charlie asked, though they were unsure of what response they wanted in the first place.

"Well," Dennis started, "Do you want us to like, call you a different name or something?"

"No, of course not, just - like - call me 'they' instead and like don't think of me as a guy." Charlie said, putting their hands on their hips.

"Oh, okay," Dennis said.

Dee complied. "Yeah, we can do that."


End file.
